A passive optical network (PON) system is one system for providing network access over the last mile, which is the final portion of a telecommunications network that delivers communication to customers. A PON system is a point-to-many-point (P2MP) network comprising an optical line terminal (OLT) at a central location, optical network units (ONUs) at the user premises, and an optical distribution network (ODN) coupling the OLT to the ONUs. The OLT may transmit to, or receive from, the ONUs burst-mode transmissions which are transmissions lasting only tens of milliseconds in length. Upon receipt, the burst-mode transmissions are converted from an optical signal to electrical signals and processed by the receiving device.